Crypto Got What It Wanted in November’s Election. Now What?
The industry is now in a position to weaken financial rules that might protect consumers from the next crypto crash.
Crypto is heading into 2025 on a tear. One month after Donald Trump won the US presidential election, Bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark for the first time, and evangelists began declaring it only the beginning of another cryptocurrency bull run.
This rally feels different from the regular boom-and-bust cycles that defined cryptocurrency’s teenage years. For the first time, the US will have a president who’s directly endorsed cryptocurrencies—and even introduced his own token. Trump is already lining up crypto believers to take key spots in government. Because his campaign promises at the annual Bitcoin Conference in July included establishing a “strategic national Bitcoin stockpile,” analysts are seriously discussing whether the country might do it. Even before the election, BlackRock Inc. and other financial giants started exchange-traded funds to offer cryptocurrencies through traditional brokerage accounts, paving the way for the asset to reach an even broader group of buyers. Crypto, which has always played up its antigovernment, antiestablishment ideology, has become the establishment.